Music players through the decades

By AUBREY COHEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFF

Published 8:49 pm, Monday, February 27, 2012

Music players have come a long way since Thomas Alva Edison invented the cylinder phonograph in 1877. Edison first used paper as a recording medium but switched to tin foil.

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Music players have come a long way since Thomas Alva Edison...

If we're talking about music players, we really should start with music boxes, which are mechanical musical instruments.

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If we're talking about music players, we really should start with...

The same is true of player pianos. This picture shows a pianist recording music onto a punched paper roll for a player piano, circa 1909, in London.

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The same is true of player pianos. This picture shows a pianist...

Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi won the 1909 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work developing the radio in the 1890s and early 1900s. This picture shows Marconi with his wireless apparatus in England in 1896, the year he was granted the world's first patent for a system of wireless telegraphy.

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Italian electrical engineer Guglielmo Marconi won the 1909 Nobel...

Here's a photo of Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (right) and a friend listening to a radio in 1922.

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Here's a photo of Scottish writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (right)...

Here's an early car radio, shown in July 1927. A large diamond shaped aerial rests on the running board.

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Here's an early car radio, shown in July 1927. A large diamond...

The phonograph, meanwhile, moved on to wax discs. This one is shown in a London peace celebration at the end of the First World War.

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The phonograph, meanwhile, moved on to wax discs. This one is shown...

Here's a the latest in gramophones from 1925.

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Here's a the latest in gramophones from 1925.

Want multi-media? How about this device, described in the original photo caption, from March 2, 1948 as "the latest combined television and auto-radiogram," shown at the Daily Mail Ideal Home Exhibition in London. We're told: "A similiar model was presented to (then) Princess Elizabeth as a wedding gift."

There was even a jukbox aboard the submarine USS Nautilus, which was the World's first nuclear powered vessel. Here, a submariner puts a nickel in the jukebox, circa 1955. The money went into the submarine's recreation fund.

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There was even a jukbox aboard the submarine USS Nautilus, which...

Here's a portable record player from around 1955.

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Here's a portable record player from around 1955.

This portable Philips portable record player is shown on May 21, 1958.

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This portable Philips portable record player is shown on May 21, 1958.

A woman demonstrating the pick-up record player, the smallest record player in the world.

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A woman demonstrating the pick-up record player, the smallest...

Radios were getting smaller, too. Here's singer Dusty Springfield with the Baird transistor radio presented to her on March 4, 1964 at London's Ideal Home Exhibition.

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Radios were getting smaller, too. Here's singer Dusty Springfield...

Perdio's Mighty Midget transistor radio was small enough to be carried round in the top of a lady's stocking. The 13-ounce radio is shown here on August 28, 1957.

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Perdio's Mighty Midget transistor radio was small enough to be...

How do you keep your records from skipping in the car? How about a big spring? This spring-mounted car player is shown on October 18, 1960.

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How do you keep your records from skipping in the car? How about a...

Here's another car-mounted record player, shown in 1960. Is that a bungie cord holding it on?

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Here's another car-mounted record player, shown in 1960. Is that a...

Here, a girl sings along with the record "Barbie Sings" in 1961. Barbie and Ken stand on the phonograph.

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Here, a girl sings along with the record "Barbie Sings" in 1961....

Remember the jukebox? How about the "Cinebox," which combined a jukebox with a color television? The latest from 1965.

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Remember the jukebox? How about the "Cinebox," which combined a...

It's been a while since we brought in a new technology. So it's time for reel-to-reel. This one's shown in 1962, although the format remains popular with some audiophiles.

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It's been a while since we brought in a new technology. So it's...

Cassette tapes also came on the scene in the 1960s.

Photo: Seth Ilys/Wikimedia Commons

Cassette tapes also came on the scene in the 1960s.

Early cassette players, like this one from 1963, were pretty cumbersome. The original "Star Trek" memorably turned one into its futuristic "tricorder."

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Early cassette players, like this one from 1963, were pretty...

Sony's TC-50 was the world's smallest tape recorder in 1968.

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Sony's TC-50 was the world's smallest tape recorder in 1968.

The 8-track tape also came around in the 1960s and was popular through much of the 1970s.

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The 8-track tape also came around in the 1960s and was popular...

Here, actor Jimmie Walker poses as "Good Times" character "J. J." with five portable 8-track players. The tapes proved prone to failure, however, and cassettes won the day.

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Here, actor Jimmie Walker poses as "Good Times" character "J. J."...

For a while in the 1980s, portable no longer meant small. The idea of the boombox was to carry as much tape- and radio-playing muscle as you could handle.

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For a while in the 1980s, portable no longer meant small. The idea...

Sony introduced its first Walkman in 1979. It eventually became the popular choice for taking your music with you.

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Sony introduced its first Walkman in 1979. It eventually became the...

The beginning of the end for cassettes came with the advent of the compact disc. Here, a Philips technician gives shows an early CD player on March 7, 1981 in Paris.

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The beginning of the end for cassettes came with the advent of the...

Sony produced the first portable CD player in 1984. This Discman came a little later.

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Sony produced the first portable CD player in 1984. This Discman...

As digital memory got smaller and cheaper, it became less necessary to have some sort of separate music medium to put into a portable player. This Diamond Multimedia Rio, shown in 1998, was an early MP3 digital music player.

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As digital memory got smaller and cheaper, it became less necessary...

TOKYO, JAPAN: An employee of Sony shows off the company's new Mini-Disc walkman, MZ-NH1 (L) and its new 1GB-capacity disk, HMD1G (R) during their press preview in Tokyo, 08 January 2004. Sony unveiled the "Hi-MD" format which can initialize a 80-minute music MD disk to 305MB "Hi-MD" disk to store computer data such as image files and text files. The "Hi-MD" recording players and new disks will be put on the US market from April this year and Japan and European markets from June this year with open price for the MZ-NH1 expectedly around 45,000 yen and HMD1G disk around 700 yen. AFP PHOTO / TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA

Photo: TOSHIFUMI KITAMURA, AFP/Getty Images

TOKYO, JAPAN: An employee of Sony shows off the company's new...

Here, Toshiba's Midori Suzuki shows off the company's silicon audio player "diGO" on February 16, 2000. The diGO used "SmartMedia" cards.

Casio billed its WMP-1V as the world's first wrist-bound MP3 player in 2000. Apparently, people didn't warm to the idea of running headphones from their wrists to their ears.

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Casio billed its WMP-1V as the world's first wrist-bound MP3 player...

The idea didn't seem any better when German electronic maker Infineon Technologies installed an MP3 player in a sweater in 2002.

Photo: TOSHIFIUMI KITAMURA, AFP/Getty Images

The idea didn't seem any better when German electronic maker...

SONICblue's Rio Riot, also shown in 2002, was built around a 20GB hard-drive that held more than 5,000 songs. Close, but ...

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SONICblue's Rio Riot, also shown in 2002, was built around a 20GB...

Apple figured out how to popularize MP3 players with the iPod, announced in 2001. This 20 GB version is seen at Macworld Conference and Expo on July 17, 2002 in New York.

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Apple figured out how to popularize MP3 players with the iPod,...

And it was Apple that all-but killed off the iPod. Sure, they're still around, but these days most people carry their music around on their phones. And the product that popularized this and many other uses for cell phones was, of course, the iPhone, which then Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled at the Macworld Conference on January 9, 2007 in San Francisco.

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And it was Apple that all-but killed off the iPod. Sure, they're...

Through the demise of 8 tracks, cassettes, reel-to-reel and (increasingly) CDs, the record has survived, albeit as a niche product. Here, MTV DJ Funk Master Flex spins records during the "Carmen Electra's Dance Party" during MTV's Spring Break 2001 in Cancun, Mexico.